Civil Guard rescues two-week-old baby abandoned in trash container

A two-week-old baby boy was rescued from a trash container by two Civil Guard officers on Wednesday morning, after a man in Mejorada del Campo – a town located 20 kilometers from the city of Madrid – heard crying while he was out walking his dog.

At first, the officers who answered the call for help thought they might have arrived too late.

The crying got increasingly softer and more strangled, and we thought the baby was dying on us” Civil Guard officer Andrés Moyano

“It was 7.15am and we got there fast, because we were just 200 meters away,” recalled Carlos Rodríguez, 35. When he and his colleague Andrés Moyano, 30, showed up at the scene, near a playground on Toreros Avenue, there were still cries coming out of the trash bin. “Right away we knew it was a baby.”

But the fact that it was an underground container with a small opening for the garbage bags made the rescue difficult.

“We couldn’t get inside because neither myself nor my colleague could fit inside the space, and even if we had, it was better not to in case we crushed the baby,” explained Rodríguez.

Instead, the Civil Guards called the local police, who in turn told the municipal garbage collection company to send a crane to the scene immediately.

The vehicle showed up five to 10 minutes later, but in the meantime “the crying got increasingly softer and more strangled, and we thought the baby was dying on us,” said an emotional Moyano.

The sanitation support vehicle lifted the container and opened it. “We took out the bags one at a time, quickly but carefully, to ensure the child would not be crushed by the weight of the garbage,” said Rodríguez, who has two children of his own, aged 13 and two.

The baby was finally found by the vehicle operator inside a particularly heavy bag. Inside was a dark backpack, and when they unzipped it a tiny arm came sticking out.

“I quickly put him on my breast and climbed into the patrol car. He didn’t seem to be breathing, and did not respond to any stimulus,” the officer continued.

While his colleague Moyano got behind the wheel and sped to the hospital, Rodríguez continued to press the baby against his chest.

The public prosecutor has opened an investigation to locate the child’s parents, and will start with women from the area who have given birth in recent weeks

“We’d driven about one kilometer when the baby started crying, and that relaxed us, as much as a baby’s cries can be relaxing,” joked Moyano.

According to Civil Guard sources, the infant is of Caucasian origin and did not suffer any serious injuries.

The public prosecutor has opened an investigation to locate the child’s parents. Their starting point will be women from the area who have given birth in recent weeks.

The parents will be facing charges of attempted murder or manslaughter.